Cat in Hat with Scarf

Buddy:  I wish you would dress more appropriately in public, Marcus.

Marcus:  I'm always well-dressed, one leash for my collar and one leash for my harness. 

Buddy:  Have you noticed one of those leashes is torn and ugly?


Marcus:  Torn and ugly are my trademarks.  I have razor sharp teeth!

Micah:  Can you argue that later?  I want to hear about your second walk Wednesday.  I heard it was more interesting than the morning one when Merci was with you. 

Marcus:  Why did Jan take this picture?

Buddy:  I think she was trying to get you, me and the yellow pipe in the same shot, but you were too busy trying to catch flying bugs to stand still.

Micah:  Why did she want the yellow pipe in the shots she took of you two?

Marcus:  Because a young woman walking ahead of us suddenly stopped.  Then she peered down a yellow pipe with the help of her cell phone light.

Buddy:  As we were walking by, she said, "There's a baby bird stuck in here, about a third of the way down the pipe.  It was making noise or I would never have known it was here."

Micah:  So did you rescue it?

Buddy:  Actually, it was not a baby bird stuck in the pipe, but a family of tiny baby birds nesting in the pipe.

Marcus:  The pipe has a "handle" across the top with only a small opening on either side, so Jan had a hard time holding onto our leashes and aiming the camera through the small opening to illuminate the opposite side of the inner pipe with the flash.  This is a terrible picture but that is part of the nest with the babies between the yellow and the black.

Micah:  Oh, I see it.  The nest looks sort of like a cat face with eyes and a nose peering out between a black knit hat and a yellow scarf.

Buddy:  Seriously, Micah?  When is the last time you actually saw a cat dressed for winter?

Marcus:  Forget the cat in the hat with a scarf.  Let's get back to the story.  I could reach the top of the pipe with my nose if I stood on tippy toe paws.  From there I could smell the birds but Jan wouldn't pick me up so I could look down the pipe to see them.

Micah:  I wonder what kind of birds they are. Do you suppose they could be hummingbirds?  Hummingbirds here are the size of a bumblebee.

Buddy:  I wonder how many times we have walked by the nest and not known they exist?

Marcus:  I knew they were there.  I just didn't tell anyone.

Micah:  Uh-huh.  Are you aware your ears will grow if you lie?

Marcus:  They will not!

Buddy:  If you say so, but they sure do look a little taller from this angle.

Update:  Oh, dear, this has been such a busy week, we thought today is Wednesday.  We just wrote our Thankful Thursday post for tomorrow and then realized it IS Thursday.  So we're going to celebrate twice this week with a two-part post.  

Join Pepi Smart Dog and friends for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.